Continental trace fossils and museum exhibits - Geological Curators ...

and often grubby, surfaces of the sacks. This,combined with the abrasive effect of sack-upon-sackas they were moved around over the weeks beforetheir contents were emptied and sieved, ensured thatsome numbers were lost. The total sedimentary rocksample amounted to approximately 3 tonnes. Thesamples were dried and then processed by wet sieving.Initially, this was carried out manually, workingfrom home where the author had a dedicated spacefor processing sediment. The scale of the operationwas such that a bulk sieving machine (Ward 1981)was commissioned from Steve Etches, knownprincipally in geological circles for his internationallyimportant collection of Kimmeridge Clay fossils.This labour-saving system greatly increased the rateat which samples could be reduced to 5% of theiroriginal weight. Picking the residues was enormouslytime-consuming and carried on outside museumworking hours. The rewards were great, with newspecies of amphibian (Evans and McGowan 2002),the first from the Dorset Purbeck Limestone Group,and mammal being recovered and described, and areview of both the lepidosaurian reptiles and mammalsbeing undertaken, leading to taxonomic revisions(see papers by Evans & Searle and Sigogneau-Russell& Kielan-Jaworowska in Milner & Batten 2002a).The significance of the mammal fauna recoveredfrom Sunnydown Farm and other sites has beenacknowledged by Kielan-Jaworowska et al. (2004, p.45).The discovery of the rich microvertebrate faunahighlights the serendipitous nature of field collection.Such discoveries were not predicted when theexcavations began and I have often wondered whatother organisation would have wished to, or couldhave become involved and been so willing to, providethe resources for this work. Yet, without thecommitment of the DORCM/DNH&AS, their staffand volunteers, and research workers in otherinstitutions, science would have remained blissfullyunaware of the remarkable range of new vertebratesand other material, including eggshells, yielded bythese strata. These new collections, combined withthe already substantial collections from these strata,led Milner and Batten (2002b, p. 6) to say “….. noother vertebrate fauna from before the Campanian ofNorth America approaches this diversity”. Theresurgence of interest in these strata stimulated bythese discoveries led to a well attended symposium,‘Life and Environments in Purbeck Times’ held atthe DORCM in March 1999, and supported byAmerada Hess and The Palaeontological Association.The latter published many of the papers in SpecialPapers in Palaeontology (Milner and Batten 2002a).The initial implications for the DORCM were whatwould happen to the trackways, if present, oncerecovered. Then, unexpectedly, it was compoundedby the question of how the museum would, in thelonger term, deal with the substantial collection ofmicrovertebrates and the inevitable research interestthey would generate. Collections of tiny fragile teethmounted on pins in glass tubes, and other pickedresidues also stored in small glass tubes, presentsignificant collections management issues especiallyin museums where resources are stretched.Acknowledgement of this as an issue brings me backto the matter of ‘collections impact’ and ‘collectionsenhancement’, and in this case the unquestionableenhancement of our knowledge of these extraordinarystrata and the filling of gaps in the ‘Tree of Life’.What should the attitude of the museums’ professionbe to collection on such a scale? What is the purposeof museums? Should the woeful lack of resources tosupport collections in so many, and the Nationals arenot immune (Morris 2005), mean that opportunitiesfor serious collection and preservation to underpinlong-term research be passed by? Wilkinson (2005,pp. 5, 15), in the potentially influential report of theMuseums Association Inquiry into collections,acknowledges the lack of ‘vibrancy and rigour’ in thedevelopment of collections. There is a real dangerthat the ‘bean-counter mentality’ which has developedand then driven so many museums over the last 15 orso years with targets for this and for that, along withthe growth in ‘edutainment’ (Johnson 2005), is havingan increasingly serious effect on their ability to reachout at a scholarly level, interacting with localextractive industries, members of the public, localsocieties, local authorities, civil engineeringcontractors, etc. I do not speak for the DORCM, butI would be surprised if in 2006 they would letthemselves become involved in another SunnydownFarm site, and the potential loss to communities, bothlocal and national, both public and academic, and tothat august museum of over 150 years standing, isplain to see.Kevin Keates’ Quarry – 1997: In 1997, TrevHaysom, who had spotted the fallenWorbarrow Toutblock in 1981, was walking with his family throughthat area peppered by quarries around the LangtonMatravers and Acton areas of the Isle of Purbeck.One of the family noticed some large (maximumdiameter seen was 1.14 m) oval to circular, shallowdepressions across a recently cleared area of limestonein a quarry being worked by Kevin Keates. Thesestrongly suggested dinosaur track moulds of a ratherdifferent sort to those found before.-238-